Thursday, November 15, 2007

The Immeasurable ROI of Unit Tests

One of the biggest problems with advocating Unit Tests is the fact that the return on investment is transparent and immeasurable.  In his blog {codesqueeze}, Max Pool offers a simple but elegant way to increase awareness of how much time is wasted when you don’t Unit Test.

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Wednesday, November 14, 2007

More on “The End of Advertising As We Know It”

As if to underscore yesterday’s post about the new IBM report—The End Of Advertising As We Know —there were two stories in the trade press today that would indicate the authors of the report are on to something.

The first story is on Media Daily and it is a message from Nick Brien, the CEO of Universal McCann Worldwide. The title pretty much says it all: Marketers Threaten To Put Majority Of Budget Online (free registration may be required). Brien says what is driving marketers online is “discontent due to increasing viewer fragmentation, disruptive technologies, and the resulting decrease in ROI” for traditional media.

The other story title is self-explanatory as well: Murdoch Says Huge TV Profits Are History.

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

IBM: Prepare for “The End Of Advertising As We Know It”

Five years ago, Sergio Zyman, the former chief marketing officer for Coca-Cola, penned a book entitled The End of Advertising As We Know It. Zyman asserted that marketing had strayed too far from its original purpose to generate sales, and he was one of the strong voices urging marketers to make sure their efforts and creativity could demonstrate a solid return on investment. Apparently, many in business listened to Zyman (and others that championed the same message) because most CMOs today will tell you proving a good return on marketing dollars is an absolutely vital part of their job description.

Now, five years later, IBM has released a report with the same title: The End of Advertising As We Know It. According to the opening paragraph of the report, “The next 5 years will hold more change for the advertising industry than the previous 50 did.” The report link above will take you to a full PDF of the report, and there is also a summary available.

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Mobile Banking: Ready for Prime Time?

The mobile banking arena is heating up, and, just in time for the holidays, so too is the marketing push from banks to get people to use the service. American Banker (registration required) reported that Wachovia and SunTrust have launched new services, and AT&T Corp. will unveil today new handsets with preloaded mobile banking software. 

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Run a Half Marathon: Virtually!

While my mom has successfully completed numerous half-marathon events and six full marathons, last month she competed in a race unlike any she had run before. What was so special about it? The event was held virtually on the Web. 

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